Project Green Schools is looking for highly motivated students in Grades 5-12, to represent their state. Students will have opportunities to meet with policy officials, attend policy briefings and events, as well as attend business and stakeholder events.

The National Green Student Leadership Council advances the student voice with regard to environmental education and environmental literacy. The National Green Student Leadership Council provides a forum for student voices, where ideas, concerns, and suggestions are collected and put into the hands of local, state, and national leaders who will listen carefully and hopefully take action. The Leadership Council’s student leaders are the ones who communicate student views to those who make decisions about environmental education and environmental literacy.

The student and youth voice is critical to capture and engage when it comes to environmental stewardship and leadership. Students today will inherit a changed climate and a compromised environment. Student leaders are the future business and political leaders of tomorrow. They deserve a platform, and the Student Leadership Council services this purpose. Project Green Schools is proud to provide this student leadership forum. APPLY NOW!!

]]>No Waste November: Plastic Innovationhttp://projectgreenschools.org/2017/11/16/no-waste-november-plastic-innovation/
Thu, 16 Nov 2017 02:11:32 +0000http://projectgreenschools.org/redesign/?p=5928In honor of America Recycles Day on November 15th, our Pathway of the Month is Waste Management. And with Americans, alone, producing ~4.6 lbs of trash per person per day, waste is a HUGE problem!

That’s right. The U.S. may be just 5% of the world’s population, but we generate the most pounds of trash per person per day. Scarier yet, it’s estimated that about 10% of that is plastic waste. This plastic pollution poses, perhaps, the biggest threat of all! According to The Ecology Center in California, 12% of the entire municipal waste stream (of all trash) are various plastics as compared to the 1960s when it consisted of close to only 1% of the waste stream. In other words, that’s about 5 plastic bags filled with more plastic bags per foot of coastline.

The issue of plastic pollution is made even more urgent because it all ends up in the ocean. As a matter of fact, Science in the News for Students reports that 80% of all waste originates on land and is washed into streams/rivers before being carried downstream towards the sea. Once in the sea, it gets swept by ocean currents into huge vortex-like gyres where it conglomerates and poses hazards to marine life which ingest it.

So WHY is this a problem?? Simply, because threats to marine life like this pose threats to the food web. Not only that, but plastics also don’t biodegrade. Instead, they photodegrade… they break into smaller and smaller pieces which cause issues in the food web at the most micro level as well as attracting more pollutants. Luckily, though, this problem IS manageable and all we have to do is manage our own waste on land. There are some really great initiatives happening across the nation and you can check out a few of those below. So, now, your November challenge—what is YOUR school going to do??

Challenge: What is THE most creative use of re-purposing plastics or diverting trash from the landfill your school can create?

SHARE! We want to hear about your projects, so please share them with us on Instagram. Use the hashtag #OperationZeroWaste and win a chance to have your school recognized nationally via a re-post on our Project Green Schools IG page, as well other recognition opportunities. For helpful tips on your school’s participation, check out the Guidelines for Operation: #viralSTEMchallenge.

Get the Conversation Started: To give you some ideas, check out these amazingly innovative initiatives for best practices in sustainability–

Plastic Roadways: India has come up with a really cool and innovative way to rid its country of all its massive plastic waste… melt it down and pave their roads with it! Currently, India has about 21,000 miles of plastic roads. Their success has even inspired other countries across the globe to do the same. Talk about conservation success!

Fashion Accessories: A research study on a little monkey, the Cotton-top Tamarin, spawn a huge social justice initiative for Colombian women. Education about the country’s indigenous lil’ monkey has fostered awareness and care for its natural habitat and home to millions of people—and it all started simply by a handful of women crocheting mochillas from an ordinary plastic bag! Who would’ve thought that a “plastic bag bag” would’ve made it all the way to the fashion runway! Oh, and if you think these eco-mochillas are cool, then you’ll definitely want to check out this solar-powered bag from Green Club Nigeria that can charge your cell phone and provide lighting!

Fight Against Poverty: Speaking of social justice, you can see how the City of Greensboro in North Carolina is re-purposing plastic bags and caring for their homeless population. Everyone deserves dignity while they wait to get back on their feet and take their proper place in society again!

I hope everyone’s school year is off to a raging start! So far this year we’ve covered how to make green and healthy improvements to our schools utilizing our Transportation and Food & Agriculture Pathways. Don’t forget to share with us the actions that YOUR school took– we can’t wait to see what you did! For the month of November, in honor of America Recycles Day on the 15th, the Pathway of the Month will be Waste Management. The U.S. may be just 5% of the world’s population, but did you know we generate the most pounds of trash per person per day?? That’s about 4.6 lbs of trash per person!! Scarier yet, it’s estimated that about 10% of that is plastic waste. So, now, your challenge: What is THE most creative use of re-purposing plastics or diverting trash from the landfill your school can create?

Check back on our original post for more information on our “Operation:viralSTEMChallenge”

I am the 2017/2018 Co-President of Project Green Schools and have been part of the NGSS family for four years. I am a senior at Manchester Essex High School and President of my school’s Green Team. I joined Green Team as a freshman and started an aquaponics project that I continued for three years. At the end of my freshman year, I became President and have been ever since. To put it simply, I yearn to have my voice heard on issues concerning the environment. I absolutely hate not doing anything, so I am always trying to think of and do new things. Whether that involves starting green initiatives in my home or in my community, I need to get involved.

Last year, Project Green Schools invited me to help on a big project. The PGS President at that time, Mark Thekkethala, and I drafted a resolution to submit to the Massachusetts State Congress.

The resolution dedicates the week around World Water Day to water education. It was our goal to submit the resolution this year, and I am excited to continue working on it. Since Mark has graduated and I am left, it is now my goal to get the students and schools in the Green Schools network to promote and submit the resolution together. I envision us coming together to show support for change on a governmental level. From here I see us affecting similar change across the nation and hopefully play a role at the Climate Summit in Boston this year.

With our current Presidential Administration, we are going to have to take more and stronger action in order to keep progressing toward an environmentally sustainable future. We have seen states and companies continuing initiatives mandated under the Obama Administration. We are at a crucial point in time where the change is going to have to come from policy, and I believe that Project Green Schools can and will be at the forefront.

A Resolution to Dedicate a Week to Developing the awareness of water use, waste, conservation, and recycling.

WHEREAS,Water is a precious, finite resource that our lives and society are dependent on; and

WHEREAS,The vulnerability of Massachusetts’ water system poses a threat to all current and future Massachusetts residents’ standard of living; and

WHEREAS,Especially during times of drought when the majority of the state experiences water deficits, as can be seen in the current situation of many residents since June of 2016; and

WHEREAS,Due to the looming effects of climate change, and made clear by the failure observed in California, attention must be brought to how Massachusetts uses, wastes, and is able to conserve water; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED,That the Congress here assembled make the following declaration of support for awareness; and, be it

FURTHER RESOLVED, That the week surrounding March 22, World Water Day, be dedicated to the awareness of and education on the Massachusetts water system as well as the use, conservation, and recycling of water.

I am a sophomore attending Princeton Day School in New Jersey. One of my greatest passions include sustainability and working to create a more sustainable world for the future. Harjap is passionately involved in the EnAct (Environmental Action) club at Princeton Day School and I am serving as a co-head of the club this year and currently working to create a solar powered charging system at my school. Apart from school. I am a member of iMatter Youth working to take local action in Princeton and the Sierra Student Coalition Climate Justice League consisting of high school and college members from across the country taking action against climate change. This past summer, I attended the Student Conservation Corps and Congress, a week long leadership program aimed towards empowering youth to take environmental action. I am also an intern for the Green Schools Alliance and enjoys working with them under the communications department. This year I am very excited to be the Co-President of and lead the Project Green Schools Youth Leadership Council.

This month, on October 17th, we celebrate International Eradication of Poverty Day. I think it deserves more than a day’s glance, so let’s focus a whole month on it (at least).

Approximately 49 million Americans go to bed hungry every year. Columbia University’s National Center for Children in Poverty reports that 15 million of those people are children who live in poverty. That comes to be about 21% of all children, or 1 in 5, that live in poverty. In the era that we live in today which is obsessed with obesity, healthy living, and student’s test scores, a child’s inability to obtain proper nutrients has dire effects on their mental and bodily healthy, including their ability to think. Their inability to concentrate perpetuates their inability to acquire knowledge prevents them from being able to get the knowledge and skills required to be able to take the future reins of all the jobs and professions held today.

In teacher-speak, we refer to that principle using Maslow’s Hierarchy where students will not have the ability to learn until their most basic needs are met. Even though there are many teachers like Sonya Romero-Smith of Albuquerque who do daily checks to make sure their students are clean and have eaten enough food, this is simply not enough. Not when the rate of poverty continues to increase to over half of ALL students in the U.S. becoming eligible for free or reduced lunch. Even the vice president for the Southern Education Foundation, Steve Suits, acknowledges this need for change, “We in no way are providing schools and teachers in schools with what it takes to educate low-income students today, as they continue to become a huge part of the school population.”

Luckily, though, there’s hope in front of us, folks! The change of which we speak may very well reside right under our noses. In our very own school yards. As in, bringing Maslow to full physical fruition by providing for students’ primary needs. It’s simple, really, and the best part is I speak not of a foreign concept because schools are already engaging. To see what I’m talking about, check out the schools below to see what they’re up to and to get the conversation started at YOUR school! Ready?? Set. GO!!

Challenge: What can your school do to eliminate student hunger? Measure and reduce food waste in your school and at home. How much food wastage can you eliminate?

SHARE! We want to hear about your projects, so please share them with us on Instagram. Use the hashtag #OperationEndStudentHunger and win a chance to have your school recognized nationally via a re-post on our Project Green Schools IG page, as well other recognition opportunities. For helpful tips on your school’s participation, check out the Guidelines for Operation: #viralSTEMchallenge.

Get the Conversation Started: To give you some ideas, check out these 5 awesome initiatives in the realm of school sustainability. These schools have all been recognized during this year’s 2017 Green Difference Awards for best practices in sustainability and student initiatives.

Epiphany School Green House & Garden Ed Program: Epiphany School is a private, free-tuition school for low-income students. Through the grade levels, their garden education is a mandatory element in their curriculum. Benefits their students receive:

Learn about gardening and practice cooking what they grow;

Guide their own education and inquiry; and they

Become leaders to other students and learn to work together as part of the club.

Bates Elementary Food Waste Reduction Program: Located in Wellesley, MA, Bates Elementary was one of the first schools to participate in the Environmental Protection Agency’s Food Recovery Program. The principal said of their participation, “This is an important national issue as since 40 percent of what is grown in the U.S. is never eaten, wasting an estimated 25 percent of our potable water and 4 percent of our power, while one in seven people are food insecure. Through our participation in the FRC program, we hope to encourage behavior changes in our own small community that might spark action on a larger scale.“ Through this experience, the students continue to help lead the way and helping other people to understand that food wastage not only helps to protect the environment, but also saves money and food, feeds people NOT landfills.

KUA food waste pork project: Students at Kimball Union Academy have much to be proud of as they created a mighty dynamic nutrition program at their own school cafeteria. The pride and joy of all their hard work is non-linear food production system in which they grow their own greens, care for animals, manage a complex aquaculture system, and tend to a composting program to keep it all in balance.

Charter Oaks IB Academy: Thanks to the parent-led “Deep Roots” program at Charter Oaks, the school is seeking Connecticut Green LEAF School recognition which is a designation of schools that have “effective environmental and sustainability education for students and have improved the health and wellness of students and staff.” A hallmark of their application process is a dynamic composting program that has taken over school culture.

The Compass School: A school where environmental sustainability IS the culture of the school. Environmental and social responsibility is the core of the curriculum and is infused into each lesson.

This year at Project Green Schools we celebrate our 10th Anniversary, and we have loads of new excitement and programming for you. The idea behind this re-work has been to make it more user-friendly, as well as an active, living, breathing engagement piece. Imagine if you will a true, authentic, and fun STEM challenge that goes completely viral and sweeps the nation… nay, the world!

Why were the 12 Pathways created?

We understand that students of all ages have an innate desire to want to make a difference. Sometimes, though, the type of change they are seeking can seem a little daunting. The reasons for feeling dismayed are rather innumerable, whether we’re talking about liability motives holding them back or lack of clarity as to relevance.

Perhaps, it even ‘stems’ from today’s educational climate to want to focus on asking kids what they want to be when they grow up rather than what problems they want to solve. Whatever speculations you want to throw out there, it is clear that the whole child has not been catered to. That having been said, there IS a way to prepare for college while teaching the whole child and we seek to introduce a solution to this current dilemma in academia.

Project Green Schools seeks to cater to the whole child by cultivating the natural yearning to make a difference. We believe that natural inquiry can be described using 3 simple actions—Inspire. Develop. Lead. We design all our programs and base all our decisions with these in mind.

We wanted to create a model that guides users of the “12 Pathways” from inspiration to implementation of community-based projects. Through 3 simple actions, we seek to engage students down the Pathway to truly sustainable life on this planet we all share:

Engage We seek to inspire students by nourishing their natural inquisitiveness and engaging them by providing them with relevant project-based learning opportunities that encourage them to think creatively to solve environmental problems at their school or in their community.

Develop We seek to cultivate students’ desires to make a difference by providing them with opportunities to discuss ideas in order to plan a solution for how they will tackle environmental problems at their school or in their community. We further seek to connect students with teachers, administrators, and community leaders that will help in developing a plan of action.

Lead We seek to hone students’ leadership capabilities by providing opportunities to share their solutions and lead the way to greater change in their community, as well as inspire other efforts towards sustainability in their schools/community.

How will the NEW Pathways engage students?

Our “12 Pathways to Greening Your School” were created as a way to make it easier to align students’ innate desire to make a difference in the world with their personal interests. This re-vamped model seeks to engage students (and teachers) with our Pathways and make this resource an active, living piece within their home communities. Using this as inspiration, along with the most “beloved” student fads of bottle flipping and fidget spinners, we asked ourselves “Wouldn’t it be cool to see a true, authentic STEM challenges become as wildly popular?” And so “Operation: viralSTEMchallenge” was born.

The purpose of the Viral STEM Challenge is to connect teachers and students with others across the country and to recognize outstanding work. This program offers a quick ‘idea & solution’ to a given environmental issue which will have to do with a featured “Pathway to Greening Your School.” Each month, students will receive a Debriefing about a monthly issue and will be issued a Challenge to set course on a mission to come up with a solution that their school will implement to solve the problem. To check out the details for how your school can participate, check the Guidelines here.

Work cooperatively with other clubs in your school on service project and events

Have students think about and complete project proposals for individual projects

Hold second meeting of the year

Consider having an NGSS sponsored event at your school to increase chapter membership

Ensure that members are tracking their service hours

Check in with members weekly about progress on projects and if assistance is needed

]]>A Project Green Schools Success Story…Inspiring the Next Generation!http://projectgreenschools.org/2017/08/24/a-project-green-schools-success-story-inspiring-the-next-generation/
Thu, 24 Aug 2017 16:45:21 +0000http://projectgreenschools.org/?p=5373Project Green Schools could not be more proud to share this story from one of our former PGS Student Ambassadors, Carol Bowe. Congratulations!

“I remember writing a letter to my kindergarten teacher at the end of the year, in which I described how I wanted to be a teacher when I grew up. Many young kids say that they want to be a superstar or a circus performer and do not pursue it later in life. However, my desire to teach followed me into high school. In my sophomore year of high school, I became a Project Green Schools Ambassador. I had already been doing environmentally work for two years at my own high school, but I wanted to branch out. I was passionate about the work I was doing and wanted to continue it. That same year I began taking physics for the first time, finding yet another passion. However, my passion for physics turned me away from my goal of becoming a teacher as I decided to “do” physics instead of teaching it. I had heard the phrase “Those who can’t do, teach” often enough that it stuck. I was good enough to “do” physics and so I decided to be an engineer. I continued as a Green Schools ambassador and still had a passion for the environment, but I had decided to channel it into a career in some kind of “green” engineering.

It wasn’t until four years later, after my first year at Bryn Mawr College, that my passion for teaching was rekindled. I got a summer job teaching at Biogen, a biotechnology company, in their community lab. I taught high school students and middle school students that summer. I went back to school with the desire and passion to educate students even stronger than it had been prior to my sophomore year of high school. I continued to pursue my dream of becoming a teacher, accepting teaching experience wherever possible. Almost four years later, I am now pursuing that dream. I received the Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowship to attend Kennesaw State University. I am working on getting a Masters of Arts in Teaching with a concentration in physics. However, I have not lost the love for the environment that Project Green Schools helped to instilled in me so many years ago. I want to teach physics, but my goal is to incorporate sustainability and Environmental Education into my physics classroom. I want to teach because I my teachers were some of my greatest influences and supports in life aside from my parents. I want to give to students the same chances and support that I got as I pursued my dreams and goals. I worked hard and I was also lucky enough to have a whole host of people including my family, who were able to work just as hard to get me here. Not every kid has that support system in place and I want to spend my life dedicated to giving every student the support they need inside and outside of the classroom.”

]]>Avalon Theisen to Carry Flag at National Gameshttp://projectgreenschools.org/2017/07/31/avalon-theisen-to-carry-flag-at-national-games/
Mon, 31 Jul 2017 16:36:06 +0000http://projectgreenschools.org/?p=5362Project Green Schools is excited to continue to partner with and share the amazing work of Avalon Theisen; Founder of Conserve It Forward. Congratulations Avalon!!

Tampa Teen Will Carry Florida Flag at National Games

TAMPA, Florida, July 20, 2017 – Dual enrolled homeschooler Avalon Jade Theisen, who studies full time at St. Pete College, will be Florida’s flag bearer at the 2017 State Games of America in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She has also been named one of ten 2017 State Games of America MVPs, as she helps promote healthy living, training, and eating leading up to the event.

The State Games of America is an Olympic-style event held every odd year that features competition between medal winners from State Games and other events across the nation. This year’s event is expected to attract over 12,000 competitors. Theisen, 16, earned the opportunity to compete at the national event after receiving a gold medal at the 2016-2017 USA Yoga Southern States Super Regional Championship in Richardson, Texas in April.

The State Games of America Opening Ceremonies will take place at 7:30pm on Friday, August 5 at the Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids. Theisen will compete the morning of Sunday, August 6. She is coached by Suzanne Elliott of Bikram Yoga on the Island in Merritt Island, FL.

Theisen started a nonprofit organization, Conserve It Forward, when she was nine years old. Her work has helped her connect with many partners and organizations to help the environment, inspire others to make positive change, and promote kindness and peacemaking. Theisen has spoken at many local, national, and global events, including the White House and a United Nation Climate Change Conference related event in Paris, France, both by invitation of Project Green Schools.

Service work plays a major role in Theisen’s life, as do academics. She will graduate high school one year early in 2018 with her Associate’s Degree before entering university, where she plans to major in Religious Studies with a minor in Environmental Policy.

Theisen explains, “My goal for my future work is to help inspire mutual understanding and respect across different cultures and viewpoints. Kindness and respect go a long way, whether in my current service work or in sports competition. Being part of something positive, of people supporting each other and working together to improve ourselves and our communities, these are the things that make me truly happy.”